Reconfigurable CROW delay lines on a silicon platform

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The potential of Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguides (CROWs) as integrated reconfigurable delay lines has been recently demonstrated in a glass-based device by continuously controlling the delay of optical data streams over several bit lengths [1]. Although the exploitation of a medium index contrast glass waveguide leads to low insertion losses, allowing large absolute delays, it poses a hard limit on the maximum bandwidth of the device. The leap toward a high index contrast silicon platform is therefore mandatory for the processing of signals at high bit-rates (≫ 40 Gbit/s) [2]. The higher the bit rate, the lower is the required absolute delay (the fractional delay being equal): this compensates for the higher losses of silicon waveguides while preserving the performance of the reconfigurable CROW in terms of storage efficiency and easy management of the delay [1]. In this contribution we present a preliminary characterization of a reconfigurable CROW delay line realized in Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) with thermooptic control of the delay.